English Dub Review: RE-MAIN “Auspicious Day”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The water polo team hasn’t been feeling themselves these days, but team captain Jo thinks he has an idea to bring them back together. Maybe if all the guys get matching track suits, they’ll start acting more like a real team! And what’s better is that all of them can choose a custom catchphrase or slogan to put on the back. However, Amihama and Minato are having trouble choosing. Can Jo’s idea bring the team back together and playing for each other instead of themselves?

Our Take:

After an uneven episode last week, Auspicious Day is a return to form of sorts for RE-MAIN. Halfway through the season, the team is coming together, but not together. They may be improving individually, but they still haven’t quite figured out what it means to be a team. That’s the premise of the show’s seventh episode, and it ends up being one of the funniest (and most shocking) episodes yet.

The majority of the runtime is devoted to the main plot of Jo trying to build team unity by ordering custom track suits. Everyone on the team submits ideas for what to write on the back of the jerseys, and the banter back and forth about the different ideas make this one of the funnier episodes in a while. Minato and Amihama are stumped, however. (Minato even ignores his little sister while he tries to think of something, to disastrous results!) Amihama has deeper issues, though, and that’s what the episode tackles by the end of it.

While RE-MAIN has been able to draw some subtle shading to characters like Minato’s sister and parents, it fumbles the ball with the handling of Ami’s storyline. There’s a lot of potential here—he’s been shunned by this older brother as a rival because his older brother chose the Minato of old—but all of this is delivered when Minato offers to walk home with him and gets an earful of exposition. Delivered this way, it doesn’t have quite the impact it feels like it should. I like the show exploring the idea of relationships at home influencing how we act towards others, but I hope it improves on the execution.

After a last second rush to the apparel printers, Jo hands out hilariously awkward suits. Minato heads home to find Asumi stewing at the kitchen table. She’s gotten an awkward haircut and it’s all his fault because he didn’t have time to help advise her earlier. Brooklyn Wade continues to be stand out in her limited screen time, and this scene also features some great English script writing as Minato delivers an inspiring (and very funny) monologue about how “strange rhymes with change”.

Up until the end, Auspicious Day is a pretty low-key episode that’s a lot of fun, but before the credits roll we’re treated to what I feel may be the biggest shocker of the season. Before his accident, Minato was kind of an asshole. Current Minato is studying one of his old videotapes and sees himself cussing out his teammates in an epic rant. It feels so totally alien from the guy we’ve seen that this comes across as kind of chilling, creepy even! I’m excited to see how Minato responds to this newfound revelation next week.